There are many functions that might be termed “low security” which are carried out by employees of the gaming establishment which require interaction between the employee and the machine. An example of such an interaction is switching all machines at a venue, or all machines in a given locality at a venue, to operate a specific game. For example, if a venue is expecting a lunch time visit by a group of elderly bowlers, croquet players, or the like, the venue may wish to have the gaming machines offer games which appeal to elderly players. However, at the same venue on the evening of the same day, the venue may be hosting an engagement reception at which the guests will predominantly be young friends of the engaged couple. Thus, under these circumstances, it is desirable to have the gaming machines offer games that appeal to young adult players. Clearly, a need therefore exists for such machines to be quickly changed from the one game to another. There are other functions of a similar nature (to be described hereafter), which might also be termed “low security” functions.
This is to be contrasted with other functions requiring interaction between an operator and the gaming machines. Typically, these interactions require access to the interior of a gaming machine and are carried out under strict security protocols. For instance, when access to the gaming machine is authorized, it is often requires two or more people to be present at the gaming machine, a technician and a regulator from the gaming jurisdiction or a security person from the casino. These might for convenience be termed “high security” functions.
One example of a “high security,” activity is the changing of the data and instructions constituting the operating software of a game or games. Not only is such data voluminous (typically approximately 30-100 Mb) but also the link must be secure against criminal elements that may seek to tamper with such software. Another example of what might be termed “high security” activity is the monitoring of game results and the provision of data to game licensing authorities upon which data the taxation liability of the venue can be, or is, calculated.
In the gaming industry there is a desire to provide “low security” and “high security,” services for gaming machines at their point of operation (e.g., in a casino) while limiting time costs and labor costs associated with these services (A time cost may be revenues that are lost when a gaming machine is not operable during servicing.) Therefore, in view of the above, it is desirable to provide a communication and data transfer system for gaming establishments which enables the status of gaming machines to be monitored and/or various operational control parameters of gaming machines to be changed in a more timely and less labor intensive manner.